Thoughts and observations about the Start Up community

MobileBeat 2009 – It's all about the apps – and the Benjamins to keep them coming.

This year's MobileBeat conference, held July 16th at the Parc 55 hotel in San Francisco, will focus on apps: the people who use them, the people who make them, and the people who fund them.

The excitement around mobile applications — be it an iFart app, the Skype app or March Madness for the iPhone — is having a major impact on our economy, and our way of life. The iPhone sparked a revolution — a realization that a smart user interface, a decent mobile browser, and compelling applications can create an incredibly useful and enjoyable experience.

MobileBeat attendants include major players in the industry, including confirmed speakers from Verizon, Google, Palm, Nokia, Kleiner Perkins' iFund and more.

Continuing with the theme of applications, MobileBeat will also have a Top Startup competition and are actively soliciting submissions from startups younger than three years old, and in two categories.

These companies will get to pitch in front of a high-level audience: Some 400 top mobile executives from start-ups and larger companies, venture capitalists, publishers, media, device makers and OS platforms (for example, Palm’s Michael Abbott is a speaker, the first time a Palm executive has made an appearance since the Pre’s launch). Also speaking are Matt Murphy of Kleiner Perkins' iFund, and Rick Segal from BlackBerry Partners Fund.

Believe it or not, there are still VCs looking for investments to make, and many of them will be in attendance at MobileBeat 2009 with eyes peeled for interesting startups, making the MobileBeat Top Startups competition an unparalleled opportunity for young startups and app developers.